1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and a printing method for printing information like a title of data recorded in a recording medium on the top side of that recording medium such as a CD-R (Compact Disk Recordable), a CD-RW (Compact Disk Rewritable), a DVD-R (Digital Versatile Disk Recordable), or DVD-RW (Digital Versatile Disk Rewritable).
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been proposed a printing apparatus which performs printing on the label of a recording medium, such as an optical disk. Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication JP 2003-72173 discloses a printing apparatus which performs printing on an optical disk.
The printing apparatus comprises a tray which supports an optical disk, and a printing mechanism which performs printing on the optical disk supported by the tray. The tray is so provided as to be movable between the interior of a main body and the exterior thereof. The printing mechanism has a carriage which is movable inside the main body. A thermal head is mounted on the carriage, and the carriage has an ink ribbon cassette which contains an ink ribbon for thermal transfer printing and a ribbon feeding mechanism which feeds the thermal head with the ink ribbon.
The printing apparatus is so structured that the tray is moved out of the main body for mounting of an optical disk on the tray, the tray supporting the optical disk is moved toward the interior of the main body and set at a predetermined position where printing is performed on the optical disk, and the thermal head which is mounted on the carriage and moves performs thermal transfer printing on the optical disk set at the predetermined position using the ink ribbon.
In the printing apparatus, however, a direction in which the tray having the optical disk mounted thereon is moved toward the interior of the main body to set the tray at the predetermined position in the main body is orthogonal to the direction of movement of the carriage in the printing mechanism in the main body and the feed direction of the ink ribbon. Accordingly, when the optical disk is inserted into the main body, the ink ribbon fed out from the ink ribbon cassette and running around the thermal head may be caught by the optical disk being inserted into the main body, and twisted or damaged.
In particular, if the ink ribbon is loosened when the ink ribbon cassette is attached to the carriage, or if the ink ribbon is loosened by the head-up action of the thermal head, the ink ribbon is caught by the optical disk more easily, and is more likely to be damaged. Twisting and damage of the ink ribbon originating from the insertion of the optical disk causes troubles, such as a trouble in feeding the ink ribbon and improper printing.